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2.2.8 Number of Theme and Beneficiary
Number
plays important roles in syntactic variation of grammar. Number is a typologically important category in grammar Greenberg 1966. Bresnan
2002, Bresnan
et al.
2007 add that feature number is greatly matter in some types of morphosyntactic variation in English. In the dative data set, words with
formal plural marking like –s-es and such kind of instance like
fish
that the context clearly indicated that it was
plural, were coded as „plural; other words were coded as „singular‟.
This research uses the categorization of Bresnan 2007, classifying the feature number into singular and plural. In a special pronoun
you
, the antecedent was checked to find out whether the pronoun you is plural or singular. The
sentences below exemplify the feature number of theme and beneficiary See also Appendix 3.
13. Availing herself of the decided preference shown her, she might have
aimed at making
her husband a party
in the dispute; and, by his means,
have
verb :
making
theme :
a party
: singular beneficiary :
her husband
: singular
2.2.9 Definiteness of Theme and Beneficiary
In his research on predicting syntax, dative construction, Bresnan 2010 use the coding system as utilized by Garretson 2004. When the theme or
recipient is placed into a phrase in the context of
There isare __
permits an
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existential interpretation, then the NP is coded as indefinite. Referring to Cueni 2004, examples of indefinite NPs include
one, a little bird, more jobs, something I can eat
; examples of definite NPs include
her, that bag, the dog, my photo album, Diane, all my classmate.
This research employs the categorization system by Theijssen 2009 which divide the feature definiteness into two, definite and indefinite. All
syntactic object heads that were preceded by a definite article or a definite pronoun e.g. demonstrative and possessive pronouns, and all objects that were
proper nouns or definite pronouns themselves, were annotated
definite
. The remaining objects were given the value
indefinite.
The examples below illustrate the feature definiteness of theme and beneficiary See also Appendix 3.
14. it might assist in the accomplishment of her hopes. You took your part –
made
me a promise
that you would exercise all your abilities as an actor,
to
verb :
made
theme :
a promise
: indefinite beneficiary :
me
: definite
2.3 Corpus Linguistics